 Posted: Wed, Aug 12 2009, 9:41 am EDT Post subject: Moms Who Drink: No Joking After the Schuler Tragedy |
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As recently as last month, drinking parents seemed to be all the rage. On the bookshelves: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's Naptime Is the New Happy Hour, Robert Wilder's Daddy Needs a Drink and Chris Mancini's Pacify Me, the cover of which shows a six-pack consisting of five beers and one milk bottle. A pacifier dangles from one of the brews. Well, goodbye to all that — thanks, at least in part, to the fallout from a horrifying drunk-driving tragedy that has garnered national attention. On July 26, Diane Schuler, a 36-year-old mother of two, plowed her minivan into oncoming traffic after driving the wrong way on New York's Taconic State Parkway for almost two miles, killing herself, her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and three men in another car. Her 5-year-old son survived. Police said last week that shortly before the crash, which occurred on a Sunday afternoon as Schuler was driving the kids back from a weekend of camping, she had smoked pot and imbibed more than 10 drinks' worth of vodka. Her blood-alcohol level was at more than twice the legal limit. A bottle of Absolut was found smashed in the wreckage. (See iPhone apps for new moms.) Suddenly, post-Schuler, it's no longer funny when people crack a joke about "better parenting through alcohol." The image of a giddily drunk parent may have had some appeal when it started, once the war against Betty Crocker had been won and when irreverent mommy bloggers were confessing their sins as far as the mouse could reach. There was something liberating about the eyebrow-cocked, white-wine-swilling posture of the saucy parenting memoir. It felt fresh, a rebuke to the perfectionism displayed every day by the overly tidy mothers on morning television. But some backtracking from that freewheeling attitude appears to have started well before the Schuler tragedy. Wilder-Taylor, for one, posted this on her website, Baby on Bored, on July 21: "Today marks 60 days on my sober calendar ... Wine, for me, was a friend, a lifestyle and (I thought) a choice." Famously tipsy mommy blogger Rachael Brownell's new book, Mommy Doesn't Drink Here Anymore, which hit stores Aug. 1, chronicles her first year of parenting sober. (Disclosure: I am the editor in chief of Babble.com, where Brownell was a blogger a couple of years ago, and my first book, Instinctive Parenting, will be published next year by the same house that did Wilder-Taylor's and Mancini's books.) ... More: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1915467,00.html |
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| Posted: Tue, Aug 11 2009, 10:51 am EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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I don't see the statement a what you called "a loser comment." DUI may not cause damage to others, so to label every DUI a criminal offense does not work. |
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| Posted: Tue, Aug 11 2009, 9:42 am EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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That's not a liberal problem -- it has nothing to do with that; what a loser comment. It's a broader problem that the gatekeepers of our society are too tolerent of drinking as a social norm. The realitiy is as soon as someone CHOSES to drink, if they leave themselves in a position to potentially drive when their judgment is impaired, they are making a decision to fire a loaded gun randomly into a crowd. The bullet may not hit anyone, but the potential was there as was the reckless disregard for human life. Drinking with the potential to drive (i.e. maintaining control of your keys, not monitoring your state of iimpairment or not having a pre-designated person responsible for assuring you don't drive) is just as bad. Obviously it is a tragedy when it results in a fatality, but it was simple luck when it didn't. I think a DUI even with no inpuries should result in servious felony jail time, even on the first offense. That's the responsible thing for society to do to protect itself. |
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| Posted: Tue, Aug 11 2009, 9:15 am EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Unfortunatelly in New Jersey DUI is not a criminal offense. It is only a motor vehicle offense. It is quite literally only a ticket. | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 7:49 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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Being hard or soft on crime is not a liberal versus conservative thing. I am a Democrat and think most conservatives are too soft on crime. I would make drunk driving that results in fatalities automatically life without parole. You can try to twist this into a political thing but you just make yourself look like an ass in the process, not the "bleeding hearts" out there. |
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| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 4:59 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| This is a horrible topic. A young woman has tragically lost her life. This forum would like to assign political blame. Stop being silly. | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 4:56 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| I blame conservatism. Less government leads to fewer laws on drunk driving. | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 4:46 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Well, this forum is of declining value to me. One of the recent posters (the one that seems to want to resort to schoolyard name calling rather than posting any semblance of an intellectual response) seems to miss the point. I saw no reference to "liberals" as a class of people, or conservatives or independents for that matter. The liberal approach to addressing a crime (e.g., drunk driving resulting in death) was being discussed. But such semantics are likely lost on the spelling impaired... | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 4:35 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Glad you agree... | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 3:58 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Thanks for enlightening us. All of societies problems are because of liberals. You sir are a twit. | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 2:02 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Look around for the answer. Bleeding heart liberalism = someone else is accountable for my actions, well-being, etc. etc. | |
| Posted: Mon, Aug 10 2009, 12:51 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Why are drunk drivers never treated like the criminals that they are? Are our juries full of lushes that feel sympatico with these degenerates? Doesn't depraved indifference enter into the picture? Maybe, technology can give us cars with built-in breathalyzers? How about that horrifying case of the Mom who crashed her SUV on the Taconic Parkway? She not only killed herself and some other adults whom she didn't even know, but also, 4 young, beautiful children.
How sad. |
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| Posted: Fri, Aug 7 2009, 3:35 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Summer fun leads to death |
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| Why is it that the drunk drivers never kill themselves only the people they are with? That's why I think a DUI should make a mandatory loss of license for 1 year and if the driver is over the age of 21 and has a child in the car with them it should be mandatory jail time. | |
| Posted: Fri, Aug 7 2009, 1:14 pm EDT Post subject: Summer fun leads to death |
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| This is just a reminder that summer is ending soon and Any student of driving age should read this article. This is a current cautionary story.
Driver from Hightstown in fatal accident charged with DUI Thursday, August 6, 2009 7:11 PM EDT By Kristine Snodgrass, The Packet Group MONTGOMERY — The Hightstown driver involved in a one-car crash Saturday morning that left a township woman dead has been charged with a string of motor vehicle offenses including driving while intoxicated. And police say they are not ruling out additional charges. Sean Patten, 20, of Hightstown, was behind the wheel when the northbound car spun out of control and struck a utility pole at about 3 a.m. Saturday on Provinceline Road near High Ridge Road, police said. It was unknown at press time if Mr. Patten is related to Hightstown Mayor Bob Patten, who could not be reached for comment despite numerous attempts. Back-seat passenger Kristen King, 19, had to be extricated from the vehicle by emergency service personnel, police said. She was taken to Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton, where she was pronounced dead. Ironically, Ms. King, who graduated from the Hun School in Princeton in May, was this year’s recipient of the Katherine Wright Gorrie ‘98 memorial award, given in remembrance of the Hun student killed in a car crash near Province Line Road in Lawrence Township in 1997, according to the Hun School Web site. Mr. Patten was taken to University Medical Center at Princeton and has since been released, police said. Passengers Jason Chan, 19, of Paramus, and Michael Azzara, 19, of Princeton, were released Monday from the Helene Fuld Medical Center and the University Medical Center at Princeton, respectively, police said. Mr. Patten has been charged with DWI, underage person operating a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol, careless driving, failure to keep right and a violation regarding the provisions set forth for operating a motor vehicle with a Graduated Driver’s License, police said. New Jersey requires drivers under the age of 21 or who have never had a driver’s license to complete a period of supervised driving before getting a basic driver’s license, according to the state Motor Vehicle Commission Web site. A Graduated Driver’s License introduces driving privileges in phases, including driving during overnight hours. Montgomery police Lt. James Curry would not rule out the possibility of further charges being filed against Mr. Patten. ”The investigation is ongoing,” he said. “It really depends on how the investigation goes and the way evidence comes back. Then we’ll review that with the Prosecutor’s Office at that time.” Ms. King was planning to attend the University of San Francisco School of Nursing in the fall, with the goal of becoming a pediatric nurse. http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/08/07/windsor_hights_herald/news/doc4a7b60a3d45dd350926521.txt |
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